The Graveyard of Destructive Ideas
American Greatness,
by
Victor Davis Hanson
Original Article
Posted By: Mercedes44,
2/24/2026 4:24:17 AM
How do destructive ideas and bouts of collective madness so quickly become policy, law, and the status quo? After all, most have little public support—and are not Western nations supposedly rationally governed?
There is usually a multi-step process on the road to these self-destructive fits of society-wide insanity.
The suicidal impulse so often begins with left-leaning researchers in elite universities (i.e., the tenured in search of a novel, grant-getting theory). They begin insisting that a new existential threat requires immediate government intervention, novel legislation, ample funding, and public awareness of the impending danger.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 2/24/2026 6:12:58 AM (No. 2072494)
One of the important things to realize is that the MECHANISM that VDH so accurately describes and that has so viciously assaulted American society has overplayed their hand. Academia is now in disrepute. Their flood of fools pushing stupidity with badly and dishonestly done studies has been recognized as incompetent and untrustworthy. The Leftist media that unquestioningly "followed the science" is also collapsing for similar reasons as well as for obvious bias, for sheer stupidity, and for unexamined babblings. The celebrity actors and sports figures are being exposed as not all that bright concerning such issues and are being encouraged to stick to their areas of capability. The Leftist government agents that worked with academia and media to push these ideas is being pushed aside as incompetent, dishonest, and corrupt. Cascading failures of liberal government have become obvious and painful. Liberal foundations have been exposed to be thieves of public funding and, significantly, a backdoor money pump for dem political fundraising.
All these "Emperors" are now running around with all their fugly bits hanging out and their power to convince and execute crumbling away from them. It's not just the idiotic ideas they push, the institutions themselves are being recognized as having a history of being incompetent, untrustworthy, and warped by defective ideology. We have seen the "Great and Powerful Oz" behind the curtain and they are not worth our fealty.
52 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
billa57 2/24/2026 6:59:04 AM (No. 2072519)
Washington D.C. has become like the "Lord of the flies". Drunk with power and out of control. Thank God for giving us President Trump to give them the spanking they need.
45 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Maggie2u 2/24/2026 8:09:34 AM (No. 2072552)
If you read only one article today, make it this one.
29 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Skinnydip 2/24/2026 8:26:28 AM (No. 2072557)
I would like to be optimistic about this, but it seems like every time some hair-brained liberal idea gets obliterated another one (or two) pop up and we have to start all over again.
24 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 2/24/2026 9:13:58 AM (No. 2072579)
This is exactly how the massive Gullible Warming hoax began. The vicious lunatic "professor," Michael "Piltdown" Mann - - and his comrades in East Anglia, UK - - published their lying, loopy Man-Made Gullible Warming nonsense - - and the leftist politicians and leftist media jumped all over it - - pouring trillions of dollars of Other People's Money money into a blatant, fake hoax.
The commies always rely on the passive decency of the quiet majority - - to slip their power-grabbing and money-grabbing schemes into action.
It's very frustrating for us savvy and honorable people to be forced to deal with it - - but that's the way human life has always gone. We eventually win - - but at a tremendous cost.
27 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
NotaBene 2/24/2026 11:19:53 AM (No. 2072640)
And then, in 2025 Donald Trump was elected and ended Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity.
18 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
JimBob 2/24/2026 12:36:37 PM (No. 2072663)
Dr. Hanson's description of the Leftists pushing bad ideas reminds me of a famous quote:
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
-H. L. Mencken
12 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
crashnburn 2/24/2026 1:34:09 PM (No. 2072675)
The Global Warming Hoax was first put forth by the then Soviet Union. They couldn't keep up with Western Economies so they started spreading propaganda about global warming hoping Western Countries would take the bait. Western Watermelons - green on the outside and red on the inside - jumped on the bandwagon and started spreading lies about it.
It has taken a while for the truth to catchup - a lie can circle the globe three times before the truth has its pants on - but it is catching up. The problem is, it's easier to con someone than it is to convince them they've been conned. And boy, were a lot of people conned.
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
MickTurn 2/24/2026 7:20:12 PM (No. 2072771)
Leftist Idiots are Genius' because they toe the Party Line. If you believe they are smart, I have some water front land to sell you on a Glacier!
0 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
DVC 2/25/2026 12:45:19 AM (No. 2072819)
Too a significant degree, these extreme leftist pathological and destructive mythologies are beginning to just fail on their own obvious lack of merit.
This is a good trend.
0 people like this.
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